Reminder: Total Eclipse coming up

Just a FYI.

Don't forget to be prepared for a total eclipse of the Moon at 17:44
EST on Saturday, 3/3. There hasn't been a full eclipse visible in
North America since 10/2004, so be prepared.

I know it's a couple of weeks away yet, but I thought I'd bring it up
to allow a thread to be started about tips & techniques for
photographing it for those who might be interested and those who might
pass along those tips & techniques.

Unfortunately, us West Coasters aren't going to be so fortunate as to
get a full eclipse - perhaps a glimpse of the tail end of the penumbral
decline. :^( I'll have to watch it [simulated] in my Starry Night
Pro astronomy software - which, by the way, says the best viewing
location will be at Lat. 41.7 degrees, Long. 12.7 degrees, which it
says is near Velletri, Italy, although NASA says it will be for
observers in Nigeria and Cameroon.

Some pertinent data:
The total portion of the eclipse is supposed to be 73 minutes from
start to finish, although by my calculations the moon won't even be
risen for the first half of the eclipse on the east coast - it should
rise fully eclipsed.

Penumbral Eclipse Begins: 20:18:11 UT
Partial Eclipse Begins: 21:30:22 UT
Total Eclipse Begins: 22:44:13 UT
Greatest Eclipse: 23:20:56 UT
Total Eclipse Ends: 23:57:37 UT
Partial Eclipse Ends: 01:11:28 UT
Penumbral Eclipse Ends: 02:23:44 UT

Data from my GPS, based upon an east coast location on 3/3 (I chose an
entry for NY, NY - 40º 42.90' N, 074º 00.399' W):
Sunset: 17:48 EST
Moonrise 17:43 EST
Final Moonset: 06:23 EST
Moon phase: Full

So be aware that your moon will be fully eclipsed _right_ _at_
moonrise, with some daylight still in the sky, unless you are further
east and/or much higher elevation (a plane over the mid-Atlantic would
be about right - or even a cruise liner out at sea :^). You'll have
about 30 minutes of decreasing eclipse to work with after it rises.

More information he
http://sunearth.gsfc.nasa.gov/eclipse/OH/OH2007.html


One non-technical tip from me to start it: If you're seriously
interested in good shots, _make_ _plans_, including time off work
early, etc., and scout a location for shooting in advance that will
have some other visual interest included [such as a tree silhouette,
framed in skyline, etc.], so you can be set up at an exact spot in
plenty of time - things always seem to take longer than you expect when
you do something like this last minute. Scout your location again at
the same time the night before, if possible, so you can see where the
moon is actually going to be in regards to where you want to shoot. If
it's going to be a popular site, get there WAY early and "stake your
claim" on your spot.

Remember your tripod, even for a P&S.

And don't forget to post your results, good or bad, for the rest of us
to look at.




Oh - and hope for decent weather. g

--
You need only reflect that one of the best ways to get yourself a
reputation as a dangerous citizen these days is to go about repeating
the very phrases which our founding fathers used in the struggle for
independence.
-- Charles A. Beard

"Ken Lucke" wrote in message
...
Just a FYI.

Don't forget to be prepared for a total eclipse of the Moon at 17:44
EST on Saturday, 3/3. There hasn't been a full eclipse visible in
North America since 10/2004, so be prepared.

Unfortunately, us West Coasters aren't going to be so fortunate as to
get a full eclipse -

sniff

My heart bleeds. :-(
(All the way from Sydney, Australia)

....but thanks for the heads-up.

--
Jeff R.

On Wed, 14 Feb 2007 18:09:24 +1100, "Jeff R." wrote:


My heart bleeds. :-(
(All the way from Sydney, Australia)

At least our beer and women are better. ;-)

Jeff R. wrote:
"Ken Lucke" wrote in message
...
Just a FYI.

Don't forget to be prepared for a total eclipse of the Moon at 17:44
EST on Saturday, 3/3. There hasn't been a full eclipse visible in
North America since 10/2004, so be prepared.

Unfortunately, us West Coasters aren't going to be so fortunate as to
get a full eclipse -

sniff

My heart bleeds. :-(
(All the way from Sydney, Australia)

...but thanks for the heads-up.

Don't despair, Jeff, there'snother coming up, visible from Aust/NZ on
28th August:

http://aa.usno.navy.mil/data/docs/eclipse/le207.html

Colin D.

--
Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com

My heart bleeds. :-(
(All the way from Sydney, Australia)
At least our beer and women are better. ;-)

Everything's relative...) Make a short trip to Russia.

I know we are talking moon here, but 1999 was the one and only time I have
witnessed a total eclipse of the sun. I'm a Brit and I witnessed it in
Northern France. This was in the days before I "went digital" and I did
have one attempt to photograph it but without a great deal of success.

My photo was taken during the short period of totality but instead of the
black disk with a brighter ring round it that my eye witnessed, what I got
was a large bright circle with a very small dot in the middle. I have never
figured out why. I've probably still got the photo somewhere, but heaven
knows where. That's another advantage of digital. I know exactly where to
find every photo I've taken since 2003.

Back in those days I had ambitions in the creative writing department. If
anyone is interested and has a few moments to spare there's a slightly
humerous first hand account of the astronomical event of my lifetime at
http://homepages.tesco.net/~Keith.Sheppard/Eclipse.htm

Keith

My heart bleeds. :-(
(All the way from Sydney, Australia)

At least our beer and women are better. ;-)
I'm sorry, do Australians make beer? I thought the rest of the world only
had that fizzy lager-like stuff that passes for beer everywhere outside of
the UK.

Keith

Suddenly, without warning, Ken Lucke exclaimed (14-Feb-07 4:09 PM):
Just a FYI.

Don't forget to be prepared for a total eclipse of the Moon at 17:44
EST on Saturday, 3/3. There hasn't been a full eclipse visible in
North America since 10/2004, so be prepared.



So be aware that your moon will be fully eclipsed _right_ _at_
moonrise, with some daylight still in the sky, unless you are further
east and/or much higher elevation (a plane over the mid-Atlantic would
be about right - or even a cruise liner out at sea :^). You'll have
about 30 minutes of decreasing eclipse to work with after it rises.

Hmmm. I'll actually be in a plane around then, but over the Pacific
instead of the Atlantic

jmc

Keith Sheppard wrote:
My heart bleeds. :-(
(All the way from Sydney, Australia)

At least our beer and women are better. ;-)
I'm sorry, do Australians make beer? I thought the rest of the world
only had that fizzy lager-like stuff that passes for beer everywhere
outside of the UK.

Keith

As everyone else thinks it /is/ beer, isn't about time the UK came into
line?

David

As everyone else thinks it /is/ beer, isn't about time the
UK came into line?
Oh, I don't think so. We never were particularly hot on standards or
uniformity.

Please read the rest of this posting to the tune of "Rule Brittania" or
"Land of Hope and Glory"...

I think the UK (or specifically England) has a reasonable claim to being the
origin of the English language and I get unaccountably upset to see
perfectly good English words fall into disuse and others getting misused in
their place.

For example, there's a perfectly good English word for a thousand million.
It's a milliard, and it upsets me greatly to see the term billion being used
in its American sense when every true blooded Englishman knows a billion is
a million million.

It's the same with beer. Beer is a drink which, like red wine, is best
served at room temperature and has very little noticeable fizz. Ideally it
should be served from a barrel using a mechanical pump without any untoward
use of gas. There was a fashion in the seventies for a slight abberation
known as "keg bitter" which was fizzy and delivered using gas top-pressure
but the least said about that the better.

A superficially similar drink, but lighter in colour and body, and with a
great deal more fizz, is called lager and, to my mind, all continental,
American and Australian "beers" fall into this category - the only possible
exceptions being perhaps the French bierre brune and it's equivalents.

If it's best served chilled then it isn't beer. If it comes out of a bottle
then it isn't really proper beer. My mental jury is out on the subject of
cans but most of those don't contain beer either.

Whilst it remains possible to obtain proper beer in this country (and it
would be a tragedy if those days ever pass away) I don't see any reason to
apply the same term to those other drinks just because the rest of the world
doesn't know about the real thing.

Regards
Keith ;}